Major League Baseball

2022 World Series: Ben Verlander's takeaways from Phillies' Game 3 win

Updated Nov. 5, 2022 7:38 a.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies sent the crowd at Citizens Bank Park into an absolute frenzy Tuesday night.

The Phillies tied the record for the most home runs in a World Series game, crushing five homers in a dominant 7-0 win over the Houston Astros in Game 3.

Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, Rhys Hoskins and Harper all homered, while Phillies starter Ranger Suárez pitched five shutout innings as the Phillies took a 2-1 series lead ahead of Wednesday night’s Game 4 in Philadelphia.

Let's get to a few takeaways from Philadelphia’s victory:

World Series: Ranger Suárez shuts down the Astros in Game 3

Ben Verlander and Alex Curry breakdown how the postponement of Game 3 paid dividends for the Philadelphia Phillies with the help of Ranger Suárez.

Is Bryce Harper having the best postseason ever?

The last swing Bryce Harper took in this stadium was that home run in the eighth inning against the Padres. Fast-forward to Tuesday night, his first swing back was a home run in the World Series. How poetic was that? He is a two-time MVP. He is killing it this postseason. Harper is having one of the greatest postseasons of all time. If you look at the statistics, he has eight multi-hit games, which is the most in Phillies postseason history. These numbers go on and on. He has the fourth most multi-hit games in a single postseason all time. I have no qualms about saying this is one of the greatest postseasons we have ever seen. He continues to rise to the occasion.

Was Lance McCullers tipping pitches?

I don't think that's a question at this point. I think that McCullers was clearly tipping pitches tonight. Harper hits that home run in the first inning, and he whispers something to Bohm. Then, Bohm goes up in the bottom of the second inning and on the first pitch he sees, he hits a home run. Then, guess what? Marsh hits a home run. It was one after the other. You start thinking … ‘What’s going on here?' For me, it was when Harper was talking to Bohm. He was relaying what he saw. Now, tipping pitches is very, very common in baseball. But it's an art form to pick up signs. It's something we're taught. It's something we're told to figure out.

There was a video posted of McCullers and what he was doing on the mound. Every time he was lifting his leg high, he was throwing his signature curveball. Every time he was throwing his fastball, he wasn't lifting his leg nearly as high and was honestly squatting down a little more. So, the leg kick was the biggest tell, but there was a lot that went into it: His leg kick, his glove placement, his head placement, his path, his arm path. There was no doubt in my mind that McCullers was tipping his pitches.

Phillies supporting cast keeps mashing

This lineup deserves so much credit. I feel like every other night when we're talking about the Phillies, we're talking about their supporting cast. Guess what? This supporting cast wouldn't be a supporting cast if it weren't for Harper, who is one of the greatest players on the planet. All of these other guys are studs and are fixtures in this lineup. So much credit goes out to them, and even if the pitcher is tipping, it's not easy to hit a baseball. These guys tonight had a field day. It was all because of guys we've been talking about, except for a new one tonight: Brandon Marsh. What a night he had with the home run and a couple of hits. So much credit is given to Bohm, who had the hardest exist velocity out of everybody in the first two games of the World Series.

Home-field advantage, wild fans and energy

It's a party here. Right after the last out, the gate opens, and we walk out onto the field where fans are celebrating, fireworks go off, and everyone starts filing out. Not here. They were sticking around until they're kicked out. For 20 minutes after the game, they were dancing, ‘Dancing On My Own’ is playing. Some other videos are playing, and they know all of them. I can't speak enough about the crowd here and how incredible they've been. Rhys Hoskins' wife was buying beer for everybody.

Astros aggressive approach at the plate backfired

One of the things I talked about after Game 2 was: Why don’t more teams just come out swinging? Now, there is a contrary point to that, which could fail miserably, and tonight we saw that. Suárez had never started a World Series game in his career. You can’t prepare for the emotions that you're going to feel when you take the mound for the first time in the World Series. The Astros stuck with their same approach of swing and hope for the best. José Altuve did it and got out. Jeremy Peña did it and got out. All of a sudden, Suárez was settled in, two pitches into the game. Those two swings calmed his nerves. Suárez was dominant and the Astros game plan that worked so well in Game 2 didn't work, as this was the contrary point.

Postponement pays dividends as Ranger Suárez deals

Suarez was really good, and it was coming off of an outing in which he pitched in relief, which adds so much stress. When he pitched in relief, his whole schedule was thrown off, as he supposed to start Game 4, but there was a rainout, so he started in Game 3. Nothing that has happened for Suárez so far has been normal. I was so impressed with his ability to come in, get two quick outs, get out of that first inning, and then he settled in and had guys off balance all night long. He was one of my keys to this entire series. He was great, and that’s why the Phillies won this ballgame.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter at @BenVerlander.